Public Schools Whitney Young Parents: Grading Scale Too Harsh, 90 Should be an A

Welcome to The School Boards! Please share your questions, your answers, your voice so we can make the community as participatory and supportive as possible. SIGN UP now to post and interact with other members. Registration is free!

Whitney Young Parents: Grading Scale Too Harsh, 90 Should be an A

They had high enough test scores and grades to get into one of the state's top high schools, but some students say it's too hard to get an A at Whitney Young Magnet on the near West Side.

Young is the only selective-enrollment school in the city that requires students to score 93 percent to get an A. At other college prep schools — like Jones, Walter Payton and Northside — students who score 90 or above merit an A.

At Young’s Local School Council meeting last week, several parents said the school’s grading system needed an overhaul and the stricter standards hurt their students when applying to college.

“It comes down to Whitney Young against all the other schools and how it compares to all the other schools. It’s definitely a disadvantage,” parent Michael Zhou said.

“A B is a B in people’s eyes,” said parent Hongbo Wang, who has a freshman student at Whitney Young.

Complaints about the grading scale are not new at the school. Parents and students raised these same concerns in 2010, when a uniform grading scale for the school was being put in place.